NBN Tasmania second sites announced

The National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co) has announced that it has signed up construction company Conneq to construct the fibre network at seven new sites for the second stage of the Tasmanian roll-out.

The National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co) has announced that it has signed up construction company Conneq to construct the fibre network at seven new sites for the second stage of the Tasmanian roll-out.

Conneq will begin construction at the sites in Triabunna, Sorell, Deloraine, St Helens, Kingston Beach, George Town and South Hobart starting late next month, covering a total of 11,150 premises.

NBN Co's acting head of construction, Dan Fleming, said that the staged approach and rolling schedule from May until October used by NBN Co for this construction will make the most efficient use of the workforce across the sites in Tasmania.

"NBN Co has chosen a staged network construction approach as it allows us to incorporate learnings from previous work in a process of continuous improvement," he said.

Despite missing out on a joint venture opportunity with NBN Co last year, Tasmanian energy supplier Aurora energy has acted as project manager in this phase, and has secured planning approvals for the initial sites. The company will also begin preparing the sites for construction in early May.

The construction at each of the seven sites in the Apple Isle is expected to take between four to six months, and NBN Co said it expects services to be made available in the second half of 2012.

Conneq is part of the Lend Lease group, one of the 14 construction organisations that had thrown its hat in for the $12 billion NBN construction tender. NBN Co halted the tendering process earlier this month, blaming construction companies for overpricing their tender offers.